Adventure Thread - Group A

Most folks have already left. There is a notice on the board mentioning your trade offers, but no responses yet. Everybody just minding their own business.

Vincent walked back into the Pokemon Center and found Jax. "Hello Jax. How did things go with the Mankey?" Vincent waited for a response, then continued, "So what are your plans? I was thinking we could head to Pewter. We could catch a few more Pokemon in Viridian Forest on the way. What do you think?"

I might be going a little fast. We're probably no where near ready for the gym in Pewter yet, but there are sure to be Trainers we can battle there in order to train up some.

Vincent tries to find JoJo in order to tell her of their plans. He looks in the Pokemon Center first. JoJo might have been out training, if training was what she did in the mornings, but by now she would surely be back right?

With Viridian being much bigger than even the modern-day Pallet Town, JoJo is sure to attract more customers than before. After spending a good 3 hours advertising her brand, JoJo is able to attract a grand total of 6 customers. She sells one each of the following: Adorable/Elegant Fashion, Contest Fashion, Goggles/Winter Cloaks, and Fancy Clothes. Additionally, one particularly eccentric customer goes out of their way to buy an extra set of Elegant Fashion and Contest Fashion, claiming that her style is "positively remarkable" and that she should "consider joining in the fashion industry", handing her a business card along with the wireless money transfer.

Vincent had been waiting very patiently. He had gone to tell Jax that JoJo was busy and then returned so he would know when she was finished. It wasn't as if Vincent really had anything else to do, so he had forgone using the phone function of his Pokedex. In order to kill time, he had gotten out his Pokedex and read through all the pages that had been filled out, figuring out possible ways of beating the Pokemon he was reading about, even though he was more likely to forget them than be able to actually use them in the future.

When JoJo was finally finished, Vincent almost celebrated a little. Big displays of emotions weren't really his thing though. He frowned a little. Being calm was good, but maybe he'd been taking the whole apathy thing a little too far. He did pretty much consign that Mankey to a possible death if Jax hadn't taken it with him. Maybe being a little kinder wouldn't hurt. Vincent shrugged mentally. He'd take things as they come and see what happened. If he could bring himself to care more, good. If not, well, he supposed nothing would get worse.

He said none of this to JoJo, not knowing that she'd thought something similar of him. Instead, he said; "Shall we get going? Jax is probably waiting and wondering what we've been up to."

Jax spent the day juggling right outside the Pokémon Center, pretty much panhandling for any money that anyone might feel kind enough to drop into the open Poké Ball at his feet, though he also made sure to be aware of his Pokédex in case a call came in from anyone interested in a trade.

The show he puts on with Abra's help is an entertaining one, his own choice of outfit first grabbing people's attention, and then wowing them with skilled juggling combined with the occasional special trick, like whipping a ball away too far from himself to ever catch it in time, only to have Abra appear in front of it, catch it, and send it flying back to him, or tossing all the balls in the air, where Abra freezes them in place so that Jax can flip or cartwheel into a new position before the balls fall back down and get pulled right back into the juggling routine.

Jax's unblinking gaze, thanks to the mask, and his ability to move in weird, jerky, robotic-looking ways are enough to almost unnerve some people, especially when Jax keeps his entire body still, only moving at the elbows to keep the Poké Balls ever in motion.

Vincent saw the word "Tournament" and his eyes immediately lit up with a competitive gleam. "We should get in on this. Even if we don't win, we and our Pokemon are sure to gain good experience. I know I was the one who said we should go to Pewter, but that was mainly in the interest of getting stronger. If we can do it here too, I don't see a problem with waiting one more day to go to Pewter. It's getting a little late for travelling through the forest anyway." Vincent calmed himself. He'd gotten a little excited there. He was going to stay excited too, but he wasn't inclined to show it until they actually got to the battles themselves.

"Oh, and feel free to call me Vince, JoJo." Vincent offered the girl a small smile.

After deciding upon their course of action, the party makes their way towards the Trainer House. It seems like a fairly small building from the outside, but once inside they discover that the underground arena is much larger than it appears. Even though the tournament isn't due to start for another hour, there are already nearly two dozen entrants here; many of which are familiar to the trio. Including Bug Catcher Dan, who greets them as they enter.

"Oh, hey guys! Based on the fact that you're here instead of in Pewter means you didn't quite make it through the Forest last night, eh? I don't blame ya for turning back while you could. Like I said before, it gets really dangerous in there once all light is gone. So, I take it you're all here to enter the tournament? I know I am."

He leans in close, his voice dropping to a whisper.

"I even heard a rumor that there is a bigwig League Representative here, but the folks who run the tournament claim they don't have any knowledge of that. You know what that means, right?"

Bug Catcher Dan looks around furtively, as if expecting Secret Police or something to jump on him at any moment. When nothing happens, he leans in again to answer the question.

"If there really is a Representative here, it means that we have a chance to showcase our skills to the League. You do remember about the other changes to how the League Challenge works, yes? Thing is, getting the 8 badges and clearing Victory Road isn't enough anymore. Apparently, they only accept challenges from the best of the best. You gotta impress them before they'll even so much as give you the time of day.

He laughs a little.

"Oh, but wait, it gets better. Not only do you have to impress them just to get invited to the Plateau, you then have to compete in a 10-round tournament against your fellow invited Trainers. Only if you win that do you get a shot at the Elite Four themselves. I think this is all mainly due to the fact that Elite Four fights are Full-Contact. They want to make sure those who reach them are tough enough to actually survive the fight."

A female trainer, who had apparently been listening in as Dan went into full-on exposition mode chimes in.

"Dan, you are so paranoid. A League Representative? Here? Why would they waste their time with a friendly little amateur-level tournament?" She shakes her head at him, clearly unimpressed.

"So they can spot new up-and-comers of course!" Dan exclaims.